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UW-L professor to earn scholarly award

April 23, 2013

UW-La Crosse English Professor William Barillas

William Barillas to receive 2013 MidAmerica Award for outstanding contributions to the study of Midwestern literature

UW-La Crosse English Professor William Barillas has been selected to receive the 2013 MidAmerica Award from the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature (SSML). Barillas will receive the award during the society’s annual symposium May 9-11 at Michigan State University. The award for distinguished contributions to the study of Midwestern literature, presented annually since 1977, recognizes a body — rather than a single book or essay — of criticism or scholarship.

Barillas is the author of “The Midwestern Pastoral: Place and Landscape in Literature of the American Heartland” (2006), which won the Midwestern Studies Book Award from SSML and was designated an Outstanding Academic Title in Language and Literature by “Choice” magazine. He has also published many scholarly articles about Midwestern and Latino/Latina literatures, as well as creative nonfiction and poetry. He serves on the editorial boards of the peer-review journal “MidAmerica” and the forthcoming “Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, Volume Two.”

Barillas, who earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Michigan and master’s and doctoral degrees at Michigan State University, has taught at UW-L since 2000. He previously taught at Rutgers University and Grand Valley State University.

Based at Michigan State University, The Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature has presented the MidAmerica Award since 1977. Past recipients have included Russel B. Nye, the Pulitzer Prize winner for biography in 1945. The society supports the study and dissemination of Midwestern literature and culture in general.

For information about The Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature, visit www.ssml.org/.